Witches and Neighbours: The Social and Cultural Context of European Witchcraft

Witches and Neighbours is a highly original and unconventional analysis of a fascinating historical phenomenon. Unlike other studies of the subject which focus on the mechanisms of persecution, this book presents a rich picture of witchcraft as an all–pervasive aspect of life in early modern Europe. Robin Briggs combines recent research with his own investigations to produce a brilliant and compelling account of the central role of witchcraft in the past. Although the history of witchcraft can only be studied through records of persecutions, these reveal that trials were unusual in everyday life and that witchcraft can be viewed as a form of therapy. Witchcraft was also an outlet and expression of many fundamental anxieties of society and individuals in a time when life was precarious. The book argues that witchcraft – its belief and persecutions – cannot be explained by general causes but was as complex and changing as the society of which it formed a vital part. Since its original publication in 1996, this book has become the standard work on the subject of witchcraft. It now appears in a revised edition with an updated bibliography. This book is not available from Blackwell in the United States and the Philippines.

Maps. Preface. Introduction. 1. Myths of the Perfect Witch. 2. The Experience of Bewitchment. 3. Supernatural Power and Magical Remedies. 4. The Projection of Evil. 5. Witch–Finders and Witch Cures. 6. Love and Hatred; Spouses and Kin. 7. Men against Women: The Gendering of Witchcraft. 8. The Age of Iron. 9. The Web of Power. 10. Internal and External Worlds. Conclusion. Notes. Further Reading. Index.

Robin Briggs is Senior Research Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford where he has worked since his election as Prize Fellow in 1964. He was educated at Felsted School and Balliol College, Oxford and he is the author of The Scientific Revolution of the Seventeenth Century (1970), Early Modern France (2nd Edition 1998), and Communities of Belief: Cultural and Social Tensions in Early Modern France (1989).

"In this learned and meticulously researched book, Robin Briggs lays to rest many of the modern myths about the witch craze, without in any way diminishing its horror... Briggs skilfully shows how the myths of witchcraft were linked with fundamental human experiences of pain and anxiety... Lucid and important." Karen Armstrong, The Times <!––end––> "Briggs provides a fascinating psychological insight into the ideological system that produced the trials. To understand them within their own historical context, he argues, is to realize that a belief in the witches′ power was neither irrational nor absurd... the evidence from this compelling book suggests that human actions are far more determined by irrational fears than our social selves are willing to accept." Julia Wheelwright, New Statesman "I salute [Briggs′s] rigorous and thoughtful scholarship." James Morrow, The Guardian